


Win

by writers_haven



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-05-07
Packaged: 2018-01-23 23:12:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1582901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writers_haven/pseuds/writers_haven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Fuck,” Leo pants, running as fast as he can. “For such huge kids they’re pretty fast!”</p><p>Nico risks a glance back at the six tributes pursuing them. It doesn’t look good; Thalia and the boy from District 11 have wild, fierce eyes, like they’d kill anyone and anything in their way if it meant victory. Percy, Jason, and the girls from 6 and 10 look less savage, but their weapons look just as deadly.</p><p>“Outsmart them,” he reminds Leo, then takes a hard right.</p><p>or</p><p>The Valdangelo Hunger Games AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Win

“Fuck,” Leo pants, running as fast as he can. “For such huge kids they’re pretty fast!”

Nico risks a glance back at the six tributes pursuing them. It doesn’t look good; Thalia and the boy from District 11 have wild, fierce eyes, like they’d kill anyone and anything in their way if it meant victory. Percy, Jason, and the girls from 6 and 10 look less savage, but their weapons look just as deadly.

“Outsmart them,” he reminds Leo, then takes a hard right. There’s swearing and commands behind him; Nico doesn’t think about them, just focuses on remembering where Leo’s planted the landmines. He’s pretty sure he knows where they are, but he doesn’t want to risk mistepping and getting blown up, so he gives them a wide berth. A glance behind tells him that the boy from 11, the girl from 6 and Jason are hot on his heels, which might not be an ideal circumstance, but at the very least Nico knows Jason – anything unexpected tends to throw him off, and all Nico’s been learning since teaming up with Leo is how to do the unexpected.

Some semblance of a plan flares to life in Nico’s mind. It’s dangerous, and crazy, and three days ago he’d have dismissed it immediately – but Leo’s shown him that crazy doesn’t always mean impossible.

Nico changes direction suddenly, swerving around in a tight circle and taking a slice at the back of Jason’s calf as he passes. Jason, as expected, is too surprised to act in any defensive manner; his blade connects, cutting a little deeper than Nico’d intended, but Nico doesn’t stop. He’s already running away, hoping to put some distance between him and his pursuers. “We’re going ahead, get back to camp!” he hears the 11 boy ordering Jason, but doesn’t look back.

Distantly, Nico hears the sound of one of Leo’s bombs exploding, and then the cannon signalling someone’s death. He doesn’t worry it’s Leo – no matter how goofy he acts, he isn’t actually stupid. Nico’s got more immediate problems, anyway. His legs are burning – he can’t keep this up. Nico glances around, looking for a tree to climb; hopefully, the boy will be too heavy to climb up as high as Nico can, and one-on-one Nico’s fairly sure he won’t die.

But his pursuers are too fast. He doesn’t have enough of a headstart to climb high enough that they can’t just lop his leg off.

“You can’t run forever!” the boy yells at him. “Surrender, and I’ll make it painless!”

His words make Nico grit his teeth. He’s seen what this boy can do with a sword, and it really isn’t pretty. The girl– Annabeth?– she’s smart. She’s the one Percy stole the poisonous berries from, the reason Bianca thought the berries were safe to eat.

The reason Bianca is dead.

Nico allows the rage that flares up in his chest to fuel his actions. He looks around, confirming his position, then skids to a stop while swivelling round to face them, eyes burning dark with hate.

The boy chuckles arrogantly, slowing to a stop leisurely. “Come to your senses, have you?” he drawls, his two-toned sword glinting in the sunlight. Annabeth grips a bronze knife, her athletic body bent in a battle stance. She watches Nico carefully, as if trying to predict his movements.

“Two on one?” Nico calls, poking at the thick layer of fallen leaves on the forest floor with his sword, trying to seem bored. “Not really a fair fight.”

The boy’s face twists into an evil grin. “Who said anything about fair?” he asks, then lunges at Nico. Nico forces himself to wait until the very last possible moment, then leaps out of the way towards a tree with a thin, well-camoflagued rope hiding amongst its vines.

“I did,” he tells the boy, then raised his sword and severed the rope; Luke barely has time to snarl a threat before Leo’s crazy pulley system pulls through. The net Leo and Nico made out of vines yesterday is hauled up into a tree, bringing Luke with it.

“Whoa!” Annabeth yelps. “Luke!”

“What the fuck is this?!” Luke demands, grappling for his sword. Nico figures he’s got about two minutes before Luke manages to cut his way free, so in that time he’s got to keep Annabeth off his tail and make a quick getaway.

He is so fucking tired of this bullshit.

Nico crouches low, then charges at Annabeth head-on. He swings at her, but she ducks out of the way masterfully and very nearly stabs him in the bicep. Nico quickly dashes out of range of her knife and glances at Luke, who’s managed to get hold of his sword and is trying to saw through the vines.

What is he going to do? Annabeth is quite a skilled fighter, and there’s no way he’ll survive both her and Luke. He has to get away, he has to distract Annabeth somehow…

He shifts his weight, and a dry leaf crunches underfoot.

He pauses. It’s crazy, but…

Well, it’s worth a shot.

Quick as a flash, Nico flicks his sword to throw dozens of leaves up in Annabeth’s face, then takes advantage of her momentary distraction and takes a wild swing at her calf.

He’s lucky. Annabeth lets out a cry of pain, falling to the ground – but Nico doesn’t stick around to see how severe the injury is. He’s already running like crazy, hoping to the gods above that neither of them take off after him.

To his relief, he hears lots of cursing and shouting, but no footfalls rushing after him.

Nico hopes his friend has made a clean getaway, too.

(…When, exactly, did he start thinking of Leo as a _friend_?)

\--

Leo’s late.

Nico’s sitting in a tree, doing his best to blend in to the shadows as he waits. If Luke, Annabeth and Jason had been sent after him, that left Percy, Thalia and the girl from 10 going after Leo. Nico frowns, worried. Percy is one of the best swordsmen Nico’s ever seen, and Thalia’s sheer power still scares him. He doesn’t know much about the girl from 10, but if she’s with the 1-3-6-11 Alliance, she’s got to be really useful if not downright terrifying.

It’s been too long. Nico’s been waiting for maybe half an hour, stomach grumbling but reluctant to eat without Leo. The guy needs way more food than Nico does (Nico can probably go a day without eating anything but a grape, really), but Leo insisted they split the food half-half. Something about being fair. He’s annoying like that.

Suddenly, Nico hears a shrill, ear-piercing scream some distance away– it turns his blood to ice.

It’s Leo.

Immediately, Nico scrambles down the tree, draws his sword and follows the sound. They’re easy to follow – Leo keeps screaming and shouting and sobbing, like someone is torturing him. Nico’s heart twists in his chest and he moves faster, ignoring the ache in his stomach and the burn in his calves. Leo needs his help, and he’s not going to watch someone else die. Not after Bianca.

Nico flies through the woods, pleading to the gods that Leo’s still alive. The screaming grows louder and louder as he closes in on Leo and his attacker; he prays that each scream will and won’t be the last.

The smell of blood grows thicker and thicker– he’s nearly there, nearly there– but suddenly, the screaming dies down. Nico’s heart nearly stops, and his breath catches in his throat. No, no, there’s no way Leo’s dead, not now, not yet–

There, the clearing, up ahead – Nico can barely make out the vague shape of Leo’s body, lying helpless on the ground, with another figure standing above him, sword poised to strike.

Not on Nico’s watch.

With a great rush of adrenaline, Nico bursts into the clearing with a furious roar. Leo’s would-be murderer stumbles and falls back in surprise. Nico’s lip curls up in a snarl, because of course it’s _Percy fucking Jackson_ who’s trying to take away the last person Nico cares about.

“N-Nico, no,” Percy gasps, green eyes wide. Nico can’t imagine how he had ever thought this slimy sick bastard was a friend, let alone an ally. “I-It wasn’t me, I just– I was just going to–”

Nico charges at Percy with an enraged shout; Percy hightails it out of there, and Nico swears he’ll get what he deserves later.

“N-Nico,” Leo manages, his usually vibrant, cheerful voice now weak and rough. Nico’s at his side in an instant, forcing himself to remain calm as he takes stock of Leo’s injuries. Leo’s shirt is soaked with blood; Nico can see where Percy cut Leo’s torso, a long, diagonal line across his chest, deep enough to draw blood but too shallow to kill. His right arm and three of his fingers are broken; his left forearm is striped with lacerations, some dripping with blood but others starting to clot, as if Percy had purposefully drawn out Leo’s death, making him suffer. Leo is bleeding from his ankle, too– no doubt the tendon had been cut to prevent him from escaping.

Nico hates that his first thought is _Leo is going to die._

“I–” Leo rasps, turning Nico’s attention back to his face. “I– got the girl– from 1.”

Thalia. The explosion. Doing this to him– had Percy come after him for revenge?

Not important, Nico decides. Leo’s dying.

“Leo,” is all Nico can say, willing his voice not to shake. “What– What can I do?” Leo is the one who fixes things. Nico… Nico’s only ever brought death to anything he touches.

Leo, despite his injuries, somehow manages to huff a weak chuckle. “Make it quick,” he says, with a wry twist of his lips.

“No,” Nico says firmly, glaring fiercely through the tears in his eyes. “Fuck you, Valdez, just– you’re not going to– to _die_!” He can’t accept that, _won’t_ – instead, Nico starts digging through his pack for the medical kit they’d taken from the corpse of the boy from 7. He knows it’s in there somewhere, he just has to– has to find it–

“Nico–”

“No!” Nico cuts him off desperately, throwing him a fierce but helpless look. “You can’t– can’t die. Please, I– I…” _I need you_ , he wants to say, but can’t, because all that will come out are sobs.

“Look– Look at me, Nico,” Leo says softly, and Nico does. Leo’s fingers– the fingers that made beautiful, amazing things out of virtually nothing– are bent at unnatural angles, never to build again. Nico can’t fix it. He doesn’t know how. “My fingers– they’re not supposed to– to bend like that,” Leo continues, staring at Nico pleadingly. “Nico–”

“You just have to outlast the others,” Nico interrupts shakily, wiping his eyes with the heel of his palm. “When– When you get back to Olympus–”

“I’m not going to last that long,” Leo says, voice cracking, and even though his tone is gentle, it feels like Nico’s been slapped in the face.

“Please,” is all Leo says.

Nico takes his broken, bloody form in, and can’t protest any longer. Leo is in pain; Nico’s being selfish. There’s– There’s really only one thing Nico can do for him now, but the thought makes him choke and shake with sobs. It’s pathetic– he isn’t even the one– the one dying, and yet…

“Shh,” Leo says soothingly, as if Nico is the one who needs comforting. “I know.” He makes a move as if to reach for Nico, but he just winces in pain and stops trying to move.

It’s this that makes Nico’s will turn to iron. Even on the brink of death, suffering from such severe injuries, Leo’s the one helping Nico. For all this boy has done for Nico, how hard can it be to do something for him?

With despair in his soul and sorrow in his heart, Nico gives a single, tiny nod.

Leo smiles at him then, a mere shadow of the sunny, mischievous grin that he’d been wearing when they first met. _It’s just us against them now,_ Nico can almost hear him say. _How about we team up?_

“Thank you,” he breathes now, his face relaxing like a great burden has been lifted from him. “I’m sure– I’m sure you’ve wanted to kill me a few times since– since we teamed up. Well, here’s– here’s your chance.”

A drop of rain falls on Leo’s face, and another, and another. Yesterday Nico would’ve punched Leo in the arm for the joke; today he touches Leo’s cheek with trembling fingers and says, quietly, “That’s not funny.”

Leo’s smile turns sad. “I know,” he sighs, closing his eyes gently. “Please don’t cry. Remember– Remember the traps.”

“I will,” Nico whispers, memorizing the feel of Leo’s warm skin under his fingers. There’s a long moment of silence; Nico says goodbye to the boy who found him in the woods, homicidal and suicidal all at once after Bianca’s death. The boy who won him over with his easy smiles and clever fingers. The boy who saved him from himself.

It seems like an eternity later that Leo says, sad and soft and resigned, “Do it.”

Nico picks up his sword and takes a deep breath. His hands shake violently, his sight is blurry with tears, and he can hardly breathe for sobbing, but that hardly matters. He presses the blade gently against Leo’s neck; there’s no way he can miss.

“Thank you,” Nico sobs. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Leo wheezes, calm in the face of death. “Nico.”

“W-What?”

“Win.”

“I will,” Nico promises, firm and fierce and determined even through the tears because none of those _fuckers_ are going to make it out of the arena alive. “I swear it on the River Styx.”

Leo smiles, lopsided and weak and sad, but says nothing. Nico takes that as his cue; he draws a deep breath, lets it out, then–

One slice, deep, across the neck, and Leo is dead.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for nilsace on tumblr. She asked for Valdangelo with the phrase "That's not supposed to bend like that."
> 
> Comments and kudos always appreciated ^^
> 
> Edit: Also, headcanons I had about this fic that didn't make it in:
> 
> Being in the Games was not too good on Luke's mental health. When he finds out his close friend Thalia had been killed by Leo's explosives, he snaps. Already in a terrible state of mind, Luke just loses grip of his rage and literally kills Piper on the spot for "letting Thalia get killed". The rest of his alliance tries to kill him since he's obviously turned against them, but Luke manages to get away. He ambushes Leo while Leo is making his way to meet up with Nico and gets his revenge by way of torture. Luke leaves him there to die of blood loss, and Percy, who'd been out tracking Luke, stumbles upon the scene a short time later. What Nico sees, Percy ready to strike Leo, is Percy's attempt to put Leo out of his misery. He's going to die anyway, there's no denying it. Might as well make it quick.
> 
> There'd been a Big Three alliance with Jason, Thalia, Percy, Nico and Bianca. Bianca and Percy had been partnered when Bianca was killed by another tribute, but Nico of course put the blame on Percy and broke away on his own. Nico does okay on his own, mostly because he blends into the shadows and the other tributes are more worried about the rest of the Big Three, but eventually when the Big Three join up with 6-10-11 to mop up everyone else, Nico and Leo, the only two loners, team up for the sake of survival. 
> 
> Nico wins the Games.


End file.
